[Orgmode] Re: [OT] How do you keep your reference data?

[Bernt Hansen]

Marcelo de Moraes Serpa <address@hidden> writes:

> Information that has no potential next action associated but that
> still has potential reference value and that you'd like to keep
> around, how and where do you keep it ?
>
> I usually check - if it is related to a project, I put it in this
> project's wiki page (a simple .org ASCII file named after the project
> under ~/org/wiki folder). If it's not, I try to find out if there's a
> wiki page that I could fit it into, if not, I create a new file under
> the wiki folder.
>
> I used to use tomboy, but I'm trying to move/center all my data to my
> org folder. I still use Tomboy for quick notes (collection-phase)
> though, but not for reference.
>
> I then have a simple function that searches (rgrep) through the whole
> ~/org folder, so that whenever I want to check if I have something
> about subject x, I just rgrep my PIM folder.
>
> ;;a little elisp func to rgrep through all my org directory
> (defun org-rgrep (REGEXP1) "Searches through all my org/PIM files" 
> (interactive "sSearch PIM for: ")
> (rgrep REGEXP1 "*.org" "/home/marcelo/org" ))
> ;;bind the previous function to windows_key + o
> (global-set-key [?\s-o] 'org-rgrep)
>  
> Would you mind sharing how you do it?

Hi Marcelo,

I keep all my notes in .org files.  Some of these are dedicated for
reference documentation only and may be exported to other formats for
consumption by others.  A good example of this is my org-mode document
at http://doc.norang.ca/org-mode.html.

Reference material that does not end up in a dedicated document lives in
an org file without a TODO keyword and with a tag of NOTE.  Where it
resides is solely based on content.

If it's part of a project task it gets filed under the project
somewhere.  This is normally project-related notes that don't make sense
to keep outside the project.  If the project is archived using archive
by subtree the notes go with it.

If it's general information related to an org file I file it under a
level 1 * Notes entry in the appropriate org file.  If the org file is
included in my org-agenda-files I can locate the notes easily with an
agenda search.  If I drop the file from org-agenda-files then the notes
for that file are also dropped on agenda searches.  The notes are
forever available in the .org file.

Finally as a last resort notes go as a level 2 entry in todo.org under
the level 1 * Notes entry.

HTH,
Bernt